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Prospect of the Week (2.29.12)

This season Bolt Prospects introduced our Prospect of the Week award, an honor (virtually) given to one Tampa Bay Lightning prospect for their on-ice contributions. There are no trophies or plaques, but the player has now joined a brotherhood of BP Prospect of the Week winners that will bind these find individuals together for life. A secret hand sign similar to Seinfeldâ€™s Van Buren Boys is in the works.

We wanted to highlight prospects throughout the year to help fans get better acquainted with the next round of Lightning stars while recognizing the prospectâ€™s achievement on the ice.

This week Peca was named Prospect of the Week for the second time this year as the Quinnipiac freshman also won the award in late October.

His Quinnipiac Bobcats scored six goals last weekend and Peca assisted on every one of them.

On Friday, he notched a career-high four apples in a 4-1 win over the Brown Bears. Peca, a seventh round pick of the Bolts last summer out of Pembroke of the Central Canada Hockey League (Junior A), was named second star for his efforts.

A game later he had assists on both Quinnipiac goals in a 2-2 tie against Yale. He was third star on Saturday and was named ECAC Rookie of the Week by the conference.

The Bobcats earned the five-seed for the ECAC tournament starting this week. They will play last place Brown in a best-of-three series. Peca will be relied upon to bring offense in the playoffs. His last playoff endeavor he lifted the CCHL trophy as captain of Pembroke. Ironically, the Lumber Kings represented the Yzerman Division in the CCHL, named after Steve Yzerman, who drafted Peca for the Lightning.

An undersized forward with skill and grit, Peca is 14th in ECAC scoring with seven goals and 30 points in 33 games â€“ a great accomplishment for a freshman. He is tied for second on his team in points. He is the fifth freshman in program history to reach 30 points in his first year.